We recently had our heater changed to a heat pump and whilst producing the same amount of heat, it’s also very energy efficient, using a good chunk less energy than our previous heater.
How do they work and how are they so damn efficient?
We recently had our heater changed to a heat pump and whilst producing the same amount of heat, it’s also very energy efficient, using a good chunk less energy than our previous heater.
How do they work and how are they so damn efficient?
When you compress a fluid, it gets hot. When you decompress a fluid it gets cold. The energy required to do this is pulled from or given to the surrounding environment.
If you make it so the compression and decompression takes place in isolated environments, such as outside and and insulated house, then you can move heat outside or inside as needed. Hence why it’s called a heat pump.
Basically you are storing heat in a compressed fluid and moving it outside the box you’re trying to cool, or moving heat from outside to inside the box you’re trying to heat.
Technically all air conditioners are heatpumps, but they just work in one direction, where as a proper heat pump can work in either direction.